New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-07
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
:, :, ,,,,,opv or nRIrIsH COLUMBIA.

a.o mn Ixxi. 7e2 San Francisco: The History Puo
iishins Company.
snecial interest to the history of province when
A. Arst sight would seem to promise but the dull
.st NJ annals. The great advantage of such an
accumulation of material as the historian OF the
IociAc coast has gathered Is strilIng1y exhibited
IN such works as the present in which fulness OF
information and the thorough grasp OF all siehii'
cant relations enable the author to give The iehU
nroporti ms to every event and to enllven anu
viyify the narrative. The history of BRUSH 70
lumbja as thus told presents severm Poih'' W
serving of study. 1t Is the history VI a 80
commercial monopoly which, NOUN i''''i. . A.
M less greed than such corporations '""'
vet managed O difficult, dcnca,c """ -,
.n,ororisc with more humanity and equity 'o""i"
.n'o'p"s ,han was to have been expected. IL
a. a.. h;storv hoo. of q subveision OF savage Sow
oi,rty without the usual attendant crcui"
stonccs Of fraud, violence and bloodsheu' ana
NTH this certainly remarkable historical eplsode
,s hound ND the record of gold excitement WHICH,
while drawing q motley population TO ie,no'e
and ha,dly accessible region, yet passed WIN Us
,;,tle anarchy and lawlessness as can well be con-
ccived In such conditions
The early history of British Columbia is part
of that of the HudsOns Bay Company. Inc
,ho,c broad region was their hunting ground, and
40 discourage settlement and to keep on good terms
with the native tribes. The fur company was III
deed bound by necessity TO ADOPT ooncii'atory
Indian policy but its success in applying ths pol
,cv must be ascribed in great measure DO the
character of the men who did the practical WORK
nj the coITorato Most OF these men "oio
Scotchmen, and it would be hard TO ma mort
honorable tribute to the worth ana s'iohe'" "
the Scotch character than consists in the recorus
nj the chief traders and agents OF lhe hu"Son
Raw Company. Mr.. Bancroft has drawn the por
traits of many of them, and IN MS hahos OH
Iamcs Douglas John McLoughl1n. RodcricK FIN
lawson, DIR. Tolmir and many others appear 'iie
.,.oa;est shrewdest, most hospitable and manll-
est of men, Mclaughlin indeed was man WIN
nm a more central field must have become con-
sn;ouous figure in the history of his time Doug
las WAS less noble, narrower and more self-con-
.c;ous He was CAPABLE of choosing between ms
hest friend and his interest. McLousmih
never could have made such selectioh' ieo III
the conduct of all these men there Is 10 DC ho'eu
a certain largeness, kind OF native stateniahsip'
which distinguishes them from The common run
q, mere traders OF course this was the erect OF
their training and experience AS with VIC sef
wants of the East India Company they "cro
obliged to combine government with commerce.
and the necessity Of constant meditat'oh upon
tIair rpla
hunters. with the parent government ana inc
.r.rorow;no tendency Of settlement to encroach
,,rnr the solitude they ruled, developed oil the
latent capacity in them.
The success of their Indian policy, however re-
shifted LARGELY from the integrity OF uher co"
a,ct and that was an inherited Scotch Vlrtue Inc
directors in London might have drafted the "iseS'
instructions without effect had not the men WIN
were to carry them out brought 10 the .'Sh
.necio, fitness founded on q strong sense OF duty
n reverence for the plghted word, a CONSCIENTIOUS
ness not to be cajOled or blinded very early Viie
Indians learned to trust these Hudsons bay Oh
f1cels. They found that their yea was yea anu
their nav nav. There was meekness about
them either. They were not less quick 10 resent
an injury than to reward service. Their cour-
600 was proof Not once but many times soil
tarv traders had been known TO hold at bay
,vho,e tribe of raging natiy and to quel them III
the end. Sometimes the victory was won py
craft sometimes by imposing CONCENTRATIONS pu.
whatever the means the Indians were maze 70
feel thai it was to their interest to be the friends
of the great company.
Naturally the company tried hard to postpone
the opening of British Columbia to settlement
They rot possession Of Vancouver Island lor
term Of years under promise TO COLOMBO IT, pu'
their conditions and restrictions were SO VeAauious
cOlOQiStS
hans not wholly disappointing to the directors
There was a great deal of investigation and ols-
cussion before Parliamentary committees and ID
other WAYS and the corporation might have STAYED
off the collarsc of its power some years longer
bad not the Fraser River gold discoveries OF 1885
made all opposition to settlement fublle and at
t,acted thousands Of adventures TO the new gold
fields The rush at first threatened California
with depOpulation; but the Fraser River mlnes
were really no more than the advanced guard oil
the great auiferous deposits lying Tar higher up
among the head-wateIs of the Fraser ana lhonp-
CON- in the western ridges of The Rocky Noun
tains. The river diggfnSs proved flch IN places
hut the bars. which yielded the best pay, were
soon worked out, and the higher river branches
could not be operated to advantage without wa
Ter which had to be brought in bitches, made
consequently at great expense. The country, too
Was very difficult, provisions fabulousiy DEAR
fransporfatio costly in the extreme and failure
To find a prospect commoner imam success AS
n result thousands returned from the Fraser ours
iny the country and denouncing ohe gold helds as
a swindle and for years this impression prevailed
AR Bancroft. however, shows concluslVely thal
the Fraser River diggings were very rich, that
millions were taken out OF them and that Ill TACT
the deposits were only scratched in 1888.
Meantime a few indomtable prospectOrs had
been working their way into the interior OF the
mainland, and having found the gold coarser as
they assembled, had reached the Quesnal River and
been rewarded by rich discoveries. Thence Others
assembled into what came TO be known in 1912
Ms the "Cariboo Country" and there the first
original deposits of gold were at last struck
uhs wealth Of Williams Creek, Lightning. Van
Wrinkle Cutler, Cunningham, etc, proved mar
yellous When these mines were opened coarse
gold. ranging in size from a pea to walnut, was
found lying in Jumps In the decomposed slate
which foI med the matrix. 1t was Tom 1iddler's
Ground materialized. There were claims upon
which from one hundred ounces to nine hundred
ounces of gold per day was taken out for weeks,
nav. for whole seasons together. In the Campbell
claim, on Lightning Creek, single miner with a
cascknife, sitting at his ease. picked from the
crcvices, in washing only six feet deep, one hun